Patent Application
20080258003
This invention relates to a fence installation and stretching apparatus.
A person building a wire fence usually wants to draw the fence wire taut before he secures it to the fence posts. This is true whether the fence is a barbed wire fence, an anchor fence, or other farm fencing like hog wire. Old wire fencing pliers had a point which enabled the tool to be used as a lever to tighten the wire somewhat, but often it is necessary to apply more force in many situations than can be generated by hand, and it is much less laborious to have the wire held taut by a tractor while one is applying staples or other fasteners to secure the wire to the posts.
The process of installing wire fencing material usually requires that large rolls of fencing be transported to the location of fence posts which have been placed in the ground. The fencing is distributed or unrolled in some manner along the fence line for installation onto the posts. Fence material may be transported in the bed of a truck, with a tractor mounted boom and chain, with equipment mounted fork lift type forks or other means. Some devices exist that mount to the front end of a skid steer type loader (Bobcat) or to the three-point hitch of a tractor that are specifically designed to carry a roll of fence material. However, many such devices serve merely to transport the fence material, and do not facilitate any of the other operations necessary to install it.
Other devices exist which transport, distribute, and stretch the fence material during installation, but these have substantial disadvantages such as being heavy, cumbersome, difficult to load with fence material or unload, or not adapted to distribute fence material along the fence line. Most often, distribution and positioning of the fence material along the fence line require much of the work be done by hand.
To install fencing material onto fence posts, the fencing material is first attached to a starting post, then extended to the next post, positioned into an upright and proper position adjacent to the post, and then stretched tight so that there is no noticeable sag in the fence wire. The wire is then secured to the post. The process is repeated at each additional post along the line until the entire fence is completed. Uprighting, positioning and stretching the fence material at each post is usually an awkward and involved procedure. Positioning the material alongside the post is sometimes done by hand. This is difficult, because of the weight and unwieldy nature of the material. Prior devices that are designed specifically to transport a roll of fence material using a loader or tractor may transport the roll in an upright orientation and some allow for distribution of the material from the roll as well. However, such devices are difficult to use in terms of positioning the material properly due to the lack of adjustability.
Stretching fence material to remove any sag between posts is traditionally accomplished using a “come-along” type device or a “fence-stretcher” tool similar to a vehicle jack. Such devices are operated by hand and attach at one end to the fence post and at the opposite end to the fence material at the location of one of the strands. These tools are designed so that a jacking mechanism draws the two ends together thus placing tension on the fencing material at the point of attachment. Moreover, they are difficult to use and most often multiple tools must be used simultaneously in order to create some degree of uniform tension across the height of the fence material.
Some prior tractor or loader mounted devices can stretch fence material as well. One such device, designed for use on Bobcat type equipment, has hydraulic clamping mechanisms disposed along the roll of wire to prevent rotation. Such hydraulically operated devices are expensive to operate, lack fine control of pressure, lack vertical adjustability, and can be very dangerous to operate. Yet another device uses long bar type clamps connected together by bolts and nuts and placed vertically along each side of the material so as to “sandwich” the fence material between the bars and connected to the equipment so that forward movement of the equipment places tension on the fence material. Such devices have a number of significant disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the “sandwich” configuration of clamping does not always distribute the tension evenly and tends to damage the fence material. Another disadvantage is that these type devices lack vertical or angular adjustability with the equipment in motion rendering proper positioning at the post difficult and further tending to damage the material.
It would be desirable to provide a device designed to transport fencing material or the like using a tractor, loader, truck, SUV, ATV, or other vehicle readily available to the ordinary person. Such a device ought to provide easy and safe loading or unloading of a roll of fencing material or the like, easy distribution of the material along a fence line or other location. It ought to make it easy to orient the material in an upright or angular position along the fence post, and to stretch the material in a uniform manner while minimizing damage to the material. It should minimize necessary manual operations so that one person can perform the complete fence material installation easily, quickly, safely, and relatively unassisted. There is also a need for a fence installation device can transport, distribute, position and simultaneously stretch diverse materials such as individual strand fence wire, electrical wire or the like, cable, rope, chain, water pipe, high fence or other similar materials.
Several inventors have designed devices for tractors with the goal of helping farmers tension fence wire. These devices typically have a spindle for supporting one or more rolls of wire, and some braking arrangement to keep the rolls from turning on the spindle when it is time to draw the wire tight. Representative patents include No. 5582216, No. 5163634, No. 5930718, No. 485-4521, No. 5914270, No. 3048348, No. 4930718, No. 5632470 and No. 58806779. Another such device is shown in published patent application 2004/0065767. None of the prior arrangements is entirely satisfactory, for one or more of the reasons mentioned above.
An object of the invention is to provide farmers and ranchers with a device which is easily attached to a tractor having a standard three-point hitch. Another object is to provide a braking arrangement for a wire fencing roll which will not damage the fencing or become entangled with it. A further object it to do all this with a simple and versatile device which can stretch both roll fencing such as hog wire, and barbed wire.
These and other objects are attained by the apparatus described below.
The invention provides a spindle support which receives a spindle upon which a roll of fence wire can be mounted. The roll can be allowed to turn freely on the spindle; however, the spindle can be moved by a hydraulic ram to pinch the wire roll against a fixed part of the frame and thus prevent if from turning. The term “ram” as used herein means any linear motor, preferably a hydraulic cylinder and piston.
In the accompanying drawings,
A fence installation and stretching apparatus embodying the invention is shown in
A sliding fence coil support member 30 (shown in detail in
The ram moves the coil support member between a free-spooling position in which the fence roll can turn freely, and a fence-tensioning position where the roll is clamped against the frame. In the latter position, the outer surface of the fence wire roll “R” mounted on the spindle 46 is forced against the edges of the upright members 16, 18 of the framework that defines one side of the gap.
A barbed wire roll “B” can be mounted on the spindle 46 by itself in which case the barbed wire can be distributed and tensioned in the same way as the roll wire. However, the apparatus preferably also comprises a separate attachment 50 for supporting plural spools of barbed-wire “B”. The attachment is attached with bolts to an auxiliary vertical member 52 welded to the frame.
When the attachment is used, the barbed wire spools may be restricted from turning—to keep some tension on the wire and thus keep it from tangling—by spring brakes 54. As shown in the detail view (
The apparatus preferably also includes a mechanism for driving fence posts into the ground, and for pulling them out. The post driving/pulling mechanism 80 (
The apparatus has brackets and associated hardware attached to the framework, e.g., by welding, visible at the lower right of
A system of hydraulic lines and controls, partly visible in
The hydraulic post driver/puller feature shown in
A mounting plate (not shown) for mounting the apparatus to a Bobcat or skid-steer type loader may be substituted for the three-point hitch brackets shown in
Since the invention is subject to modifications and variations, it is intended that the foregoing description and the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as only illustrative of the invention.
This application claims benefit from provisional patent application 60/912,191, filed Apr. 17, 2007. The disclosure of the provisional patent is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60912191 | Apr 2007 | US |
